Hi,
I am new to the forum and surfing in general. I come from a snowboarding and skimboarding background and want to make my own surfboard but i need some help deciding exactly what to buy and what type of board to make. As far as fabrication goes I should be ok I have some experience using fiberglass to patch rust holes in an rx7 and plenty of experience doing bodywork my or my friends cars. I want to use Hybrid Carbon Fiber/Kevlar cloth as I believe that it would be the best option for strength to weight ratio and still have a little flex from the kevlar compared to super stiff cf cloth. I have read various threads here and info on surfersteve.com to find out that polystyrene blanks are the way to go with carbon fiber and of course epoxy resin. But the question is which epoxy resin and which type of polystyrene blank to use. I know a fair amount about epoxy resins and know that although an aromatic amine curing agent would be very effective it will yellow under uv light. I have found that the prices of epoxy resins vary greatly by formulation and source but am dismayed that none of them list a chemical structure for their formulation and curing agent(also called a hardener). Surfsource has inexpensive epoxy resin for sale called SS2000 and surfersteve recommended it so what do you guys think of that it is much cheaper than the SB-112 epoxy resin from fiberglasssupply.com that was designed for surfboards and sailboards. Also do you guys know any places that sell expanded or extruded polystyrene blanks in the southeastern pennsylvania, delaware, maryland or south jersey areas as i would like to pick up a blank and avoid high shipping costs and potential damage. Which type of polystyrene do you recommend? I have heard that expanded absorbs water badly after a ding and that extruded is stronger by weight but harder to use and can delaminate. I am 6’ 155lbs and want to make the lightest board I can that will last. I plan to go stringerless to save weight also and just use a single layer of 5oz twill weave cf/kevlar cloth. The cloth i want to get is 30 a yard from fiberglasssupply.com and comes only 50’’ wide. So i need to choose a blank that is narrow enough and thin enough so that 50’’ of cloth will go all the way around the board. This not a big deal anway as i have always preferred the narrowest snowboard i could buy and have small feet and good balance so balancing on a narrow board is not a big deal. I know that most people would suggest buying a cheap begineer board used but i have searched and cannot find a deal on one in my area and i would prefer to see it before i buy it and not pay a fortune to ship a damaged board i bought on ebay to find out it was nearly useless. I will start another thread with questions of what type of board to ride as this one is long enough already and more specific to construction.
Thanks in advance,
Nate